TIJAN STRUGGLES TO SECURE PLACE IN SLOVENIA

Tijan Jaiteh is struggling to rediscover his mojo at new club NK Koper.

The midfielder is yet to replicate the form that had him voted as one of the best players while at Norwegian side Sandnes last year.

The 26-year-old joined on a free and penned a two-year deal after sitting for nearly eight months without a club.

Such a long absence from top flight club football is probably impacting negatively on the playmaker, as he finds himself often demoted to the bench with his other team-mates preferred in the midfield.

Acquiring the Gambian hasn’t come easy for the Slovenian outfit as they put up with the dilly-dallying involved with securing work permit for him.

But having lay hands on his work permit the euphoria surrounding the ace has seems to flame out as Jaiteh contends with comforting the substitutes’ bench.

The ex-Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers transfer target made his debut in September joining the fray in the one-all draw against Celje. He got rewarded with a starting spot the following game but soon got hauled off in the 57th minute in Koper’s slender 1-0 defeat to Rudar.

In the face of those two outings in two months, the former SK Brann is now deep down the pecking order.

The Slovenia league is young though and is on the brink of entering a break for the first-half of the league after eighteen matches. And in moments of the approaching brief break, Tijan could step up his game and force himself into coach’s thinking to get a starting place.

Jaiteh moved to NK after quitting Sandnes on mutual consent amid allegations he breached his contract.